Marley Welsh Promoted to Principal at Lee & Associates-Maryland
By Keith Loria January 12, 2024 1:57 pm
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Marley Welsh, an 11-year real estate vet, has been named a principal at Lee & Associates–Maryland.
“I was here when we first opened the office back in 2013 and it has always felt like something I helped build from the very start — not many people get to stay that,” Welsh told Commercial Observer. “I don’t take for granted the collaborative environment that can sometimes be missing in brokerage firms. I am excited to work even more closely with the other principals to keep this office strong and prosperous.”
Formerly a vice president at the company, Welsh’s goals in her new role are to increase productivity, as well as provide encouragement and be a sounding board for the entire team.
Welsh is part of an all-woman team at Lee & Associates that includes principal Kate Jordan and associate Samantha Eckels. The group advises tenants, landlords, investment entities and institutional owners of commercial real estate, focusing primarily on flex/office and warehouse/industrial properties throughout the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. Their clients include local, regional and national tenants and owners.
Last year, the team executed nearly 75 commercial real estate transactions with a volume of approximately $25 million. This includes more than 540,000 square feet of space sold or leased and more than 1 million square feet of space represented.
“Kate was a mentor to me from the very start of my brokerage career and she is directly related to my overall success,” Welsh said. “The day Kate asked me my perspective and opinion on deals we were working on, I knew I had figured it out. It is amazing and encouraging to learn from a tremendously successful woman in a male-dominated industry.”
Welsh is one of only 200 real estate professionals nationwide, representing just 6 percent of all women in the industry, who have earned a Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) designation, having achieved the distinction in 2022.
“SIOR has made great progress with targeting women members,” she said. “We still make up a small portion of the overall group, but we are mighty.”
Welsh cited that Amy Broadhurst, who started the Lee & Associates Pittsburgh office, was recently elected to the SIOR Global Board. Additionally, Patricia Loveall of CBRE was the SIOR Global past president last year, Saadia Sheikh of JLL is the vice president, and Cathy Jones of Logic Commercial Real Estate is treasurer.
“I think efforts to elect women to these very visible leadership positions show our commitment to diversifying the SIOR organization from the top down,” Welsh said.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
